


Sick Day

by anemic_cinema



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Caring, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Sickfic, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, domestic AU, fluff with barely any plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-21
Updated: 2014-08-21
Packaged: 2018-02-14 04:39:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2178261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anemic_cinema/pseuds/anemic_cinema
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl is sick with a cold. Glenn takes care of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sick Day

When Glenn walked through the door of the apartment he noticed two things. One, Daryl's boots were still by the door. Considering that he never went to work without them on, that was enough to worry him. Two, when he looked into the tiny living room, there was a Daryl-sized lump on the couch covered in blankets. A sneeze and a sniffle sounded out from underneath it. Glenn had left for a meeting at the college earlier than usual that day, so he'd been off before Daryl had gotten up. He'd assumed that the older man had gone to work, as he'd gotten no word saying otherwise. 

“You ok hon?” Glenn dropped his backpack and went to crouch down by the couch. 

The older man responded with a grunt and looked at Glenn through a partition in the blanket. “Sick.” His voice was croaky and weary. 

Glenn stroked his blanket-cocooned boyfriend. “Poor thing. Have you been drinking lots of fluids?” 

An empty bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade fell from the couch. Daryl only touched the stuff when he was feeling ill. 

“I'll get you some water. Hold on.”

Daryl made a sound that expressed that he didn't have it in him to go anywhere. Glenn filled up a glass and when he returned the older man was sitting upright, still wrapped in the blanket. 

“You should've texted me, I would've brought you home some stuff.” Glenn gave him the glass and Daryl poked his head out. He was bleary eyed and his nose was rubbed red and raw. 

“We got everything I need here.” He shrugged and sipped on the water. “No need to go to any trouble.”

“Daryl.” Glenn sat down next to him and gave him a stern look. “It's no trouble. Remember when I had the flu last year? You rushed out to get me Theraflu and orange juice and, if I recall correctly, comic books.”

“I didn't want you to be bored while I was at the shop.” The older man grumbled. 

“And you also offered to call off of work to keep an eye on me.” 

“The bird flu was goin' 'round! You coulda been real sick.” Daryl protested.

“Well now I'm repaying the favor.” Glenn stroked his back and the older man sighed, realizing he was stuck. “Did you eat anything?”

“Naw...wasn't hungry.” 

“Ok, I'm making you soup. You want ramen or the canned chicken noodle stuff?” Whenever Daryl got sick those were the only foods he wanted. Usually he was quicker than Glenn and made it for himself, but this time the younger man wasn't going to let him off so easy.

“Chicken noodle. You know I could make it, it ain't like it's hard.” He grumbled.

“Yeah, well, I wanna make it for you. I'm home so I'm your nurse.”

Daryl shrugged the blanket off of his head. “Does that mean yer gonna put on a sexy lil' outfit?” He wiggled his brows but a sneeze cut his leering short.

“Play your cards right and I might.” Glenn tossed his baseball cap at his patient. “That means sitting there and shutting up while I take care of you.”

He heard Daryl complain in the living room as he cracked open a can of soup and shook it into a pan. Glenn couldn't stand the stuff, but Daryl loved it. The viscous soup bubbled around the edges, bits of carrots and suspect-looking chicken meat bobbing along with the noodles. When Glenn was a kid, his mom had always made him soup from scratch. He still had fond memories of that. Daryl only had had cans of cheap soup or packs of preserved noodles. He'd offered to make him proper soup before, but the other man had told him that he didn't want him to go through the trouble. Glenn thought it was ridiculous, but Daryl was the kind of man that didn't know what to do with more than scraps. He was still that way even with Glenn, who didn't believe that affection and caring could be given in crumbs. 

Once the stuff was hot, he poured it from the small pot into a bowl, and brought it to his boyfriend. Despite the sick fog he was in, Daryl smiled as big as he could and took the bowl of soup. “Thanks.”

Glenn sat next to him and flipped through the channels until he landed on some cartoons. Daryl slowly ate his soup while watching “Ed, Edd, and Eddy.” Usually when Daryl got sick all he wanted to do was watch “Looney Tunes” or “Tom And Jerry,” but neither of them were on. 

Once Daryl was done with his soup he settled down into the couch once more, his feet turned towards Glenn. 

“Babe, c'mere, I'll stroke your forehead.” Glenn knew that that was like catnip to the older man, but Daryl just grunted.

“I'll getcha sick.”

“Shut up. We live together, I'm bound to catch whatever you have.” Glenn tugged at the blanket. “C'mere.” 

“Yer gonna have to take an extra vitamin or somethin'.” Daryl said as he switched so his head was resting on Glenn's lap.

“I will.” 

The younger man stroked Daryl forehead. He didn't feel feverish, so it was probably just a nasty head cold that would go away on its own. Still, Glenn wanted to make his boyfriend feel better in any way he could. And even for all of his protests, Daryl was relaxing and dozing off against him. After a few episodes of cartoons, Glenn's leg started to fall asleep. He patted the older man's shoulder. 

“Do you wanna lay down in bed?”

“Hmmrph.” Daryl stirred and rubbed his eyes. “'Suppose.” He got up and walked with wobbly steps to the bed they shared. He collapsed onto the mattress and curled into a shrimp-shape. 

“Want me to bring in my laptop so you can watch some Looney Tunes or something?”

“Naw. Just wanna pass out.” Daryl looked up at Glenn. “You really don't gotta do this.”

“Yeah, well, I wanna do it. So there.” He stuck his tongue out at the older man.

Daryl reached out towards him. “Can you-” He dropped his arm. “Never mind.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” He laid down and pulled the comforter over him. “I need some sleep.”

“Alright. I gotta grade some papers but then I'll be back, ok?”

Daryl made a small noise of acknowledgement. 

**

Glenn managed to slog through most of the papers before finally giving up around eight P.M. The professor he was working with had said he had until the end of the week, so that was good enough for him. He shoved the work aside on the tiny desk he had in the corner of the living room, and headed back to the bedroom. Daryl was snoring, sounding congested. Glenn changed into a ratty t-shirt that had once been Daryl's and the boxers the older man had bought him the last time they were at Wal-Mart. 

As he laid down in the bed, Daryl stirred with a slight moan. Despite his earlier reluctance, he curled up against the younger man. 

“How're you feeling?” Glenn asked, combing through Daryl's hair.

“Stuffed up.” Daryl sniffed. “Ugh.”

“You should take a hot shower to loosen it up, that usually works for me.” 

“Ok.” The older man sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Can you-”

“Yeah?” Glenn sat up.

“It's real dumb.” 

“Real dumb is my specialty. What do you think I got my bachelors in?” He rubbed the other man's shoulders.

“Can you shower with me? I dunno if I can stay upright that long.” Daryl added the last part in quicker than the first. 

“Sure. C'mon sicky.” Glenn stood, took the older man's hand and led him to the bathroom. The shower wasn't spacious, but he didn't see that as a problem. He turned on the faucet and began undressing. 

“I'm gonna get you sick, ain't I?” Daryl mumbled as he stripped out of his t-shirt and sweatpants. Glenn took his hand and guided him to the shower as he stepped into the tub. The spray of water was good and hot. The steam rose up around them, making Daryl sneeze over and over until he cupped his hand over his nose and blew. Thankfully he turned his back to the younger man first, allowing Glenn to grimace over the gesture. It was so gross, but being sick was gross, so whatever. He'd seen worse. Co-habitation made it so the both of them had been witness to hangovers and colds and food poisoning. 

“Christ.” Daryl snorted and coughed, sticking his head under the spray of hot water.

“See it's helping already.” Glenn ran his hands up and down the older man's back. Daryl reached back and pulled him closer, making it so Glenn's arms were around his torso and his chest was against his back. They stood under the steamy spray like that, with Glenn resting his head against Daryl's neck. He was pretty sure the older man didn't need him to hold him up, but he needed him all the same. He could feel Daryl relax and his thumbs were stroking over Glenn's hands. The younger man kissed the back of his neck. It was little moments like that that made him have hope that Daryl could actually accept caring even in the smallest of gestures. 

But the water was making their skin turn red. As they toweled off, Daryl didn't say anything. Even when Glenn found him a couple of capsules of Nyquil he took them without protest. And when they got back to bed, he just smiled when Glenn tucked him in and laid half on top of him. The younger man knew that that was his favorite comfort kind of thing. 

“Thanks.” Daryl mumbled as the Nyquil took effect.

Glenn kissed his brow. “Don't worry about it.”

**

The next morning Daryl was feeling decent enough to go to work. Granted, it was with the help of a whole lot of cold medicine, but he managed to ride over to the motorcycle shop anyway. It turned out to be a futile gesture.

“You look like shit Dixon.” His boss told him. “Go home.”

While part of him wanted to protest, a greater part of him knew that Glenn had the day off from school, and therefore would be at the apartment all day. In fact, he was still in bed by the time he got home. Daryl managed to go into the apartment, slip off his boots, and carefully walk to the bedroom without waking up Glenn. However, once he was in the bedroom, a sneeze did him in. The younger man woke and propped himself up on his elbow.

“Hey, they send you home?” He rubbed away the sleep from his eyes and the crusts of drool from the corners of his mouth.

“Yeah.” Daryl kicked off his jeans. He wasn't sure how, but Glenn managed to look adorable upon waking up. 

“Get back in bed then. You gotta rest up.” Glenn cracked a grin. “Or did you wanna watch me from afar?” 

Daryl threw one of his socks at the younger man. “I was, but then you woke up. You looked so damn cute with that drool all over your chin.” 

“Aww. You're so sweet, even though you're sick.” Glenn gestured to him to come closer, and held his arms open to him.

Daryl didn't need any more convincing than that. He slipped under the sheets that were still good and warm, and let Glenn gather him up close. His fingers combed through Daryl's hair, and the older man closed his eyes and allowed himself to accept the gesture. Glenn's habit of taking care of him was something he was grateful for. It was a little strange to Daryl, and most of the time he couldn't bring himself to really accept the help, but he was grateful all the same.


End file.
